Oh my God. ‘I’m so sorry, Charles. A third child. That is devastating.’

‘Yes. I feel I am being punished, but don’t know why.’ He collapses into sobs. And sobs. For a minute. And then another minute. And another. I don’t know what to do. He switches to deep, agonised inhaling.

I speak when he sounds calmer. ‘You really had no idea you were about to have a third child.’

Between gulps of breath, he says ‘I didn’t. It wasn’t something we discussed. This is why I needed to talk to you.’

‘I understand.’

‘You don’t. You can’t understand. I want to tell you something, but you have to swear you won’t mention any of it to anyone, not even your mum and dad. Can you do that?’

Not tell my mum and dad something? Not usually a problem. ‘Of course. You can say anything to me, in confidence.’ There’s a pause. He is struggling.

‘The thing is . . . The thing is, I don’t think it would have been our third child.’

‘What do you mean? I thought you said she was pregnant?’

‘Yes. She was. But I don’t see how the child could have been mine.’

I don’t know what to say. I can feel his anguish as if he’s with me.

‘It’s almost impossible to talk about this. But equally the secret is killing me. I’ve played this over and over in my head and I am sure we hadn’t had sex at the right time. If she was six weeks pregnant, the father must have been someone else.’

No, no, no. It’s impossible.

‘Are you sure?’ is all I can manage. ‘I’m sure you must be wrong. It’s easy to forget these things.’

‘It might be easy for you. Not for me. The truth is we hadn’t had sex since before Christmas. We were worried about it. Well, I was worried about it.’

This makes no sense. I don’t believe it. The pathologist made a mistake. Clare would never have blown up her family like this. Impossible.

‘I am sorry things between you and Clare were tricky, but the baby must have been yours. Your memory is playing tricks on you. It happens.’

‘It is kind of you to think that. And I want to believe it. I can’t.’

‘But if not you . . .?’ I can’t bring myself to say it.

‘Obviously, that’s been haunting me. But I don’t want to know.’

‘Oh.’

I hear a muffled voice in the background and the sound of Charles covering the phone with his hand.

‘I’ve got to go. You have to swear never to mention this to anyone, especially not to Bernie and Ginger.’

‘I promise.’